Obama must show Iran's people he is on their side
Fox News, April 22, 2009
Foreign Affairs Analyst and Iran Expert
Transcript
The Iranian
regime’s firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacked
President Obama today for boycotting the United Nation’s
racism conference in Durban, South Africa. Two days earlier,
the international racism conference in Geneva — which was
boycotted by many Western nations — fell into disarray after
Ahmadinejad’s outrageous speech triggered a mass walkout and
furious rebukes from Western capitals.
“I should give you, the new U.S. administration, this
advice. Mr. Obama came to power with the slogan of ‘change’,
meaning the American people, like the rest of the world,
want a change in the colonialism policy,” Ahmadinejad told
crowds in a speech broadcast live from Varamin, a city south
of Tehran amid the habitual slogans of “death to America and
death to Israel.”
On Tuesday, April 21, Obama vowed that he will continue to
follow “tough” direct diplomacy with Iran despite the latest
anti-Israel tirade by Ahmadinejad. After holding talks with
King Abdullah II of Jordan, Obama said that the
Ahmadinejad’s fiery rhetoric at the United Nations racism
conference was “appalling” and “harmful.”
A week earlier, Ahmadinejad openly derided the international
community’s intentions to curb Tehran’s nuclear program,
while boasting about the country’s 7,000 centrifuges
currently spinning in Natanz. He also joined other officials
who in recent days have strongly rejected abandoning the
nuclear program — despite new overtures from the Obama
administration for talks.
In what appeared to be an official response to an April 8
invitation from the United States, and five other major
powers, to attend a meeting to find a diplomatic solution to
Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Tehran announced today that it
welcomes talks, and is ready to offer a proposal to resolve
the dispute over its uranium enrichment activities. This
word came from the state-run IRNA news agency.
Appearing before the lawmakers in Congress today Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton said that the United States is
preparing for “very tough sanctions” against Iran if it
rebuffs offers on its nuclear program. “We are also laying
the groundwork for the kind of very tough sanctions, I think
you said ‘crippling sanctions,’ that might be necessary in
the event that our offers are either rejected or the process
is inconclusive or unsuccessful,” Clinton said at a
Congressional hearing on America’s foreign policy.
Although the Iranian rulers’ political cunning would not
permit them to rebuff talks outright, they plan to simply
exploit negotiations as a tactic to buy more precious time
for their nuclear program. In light of that, Washington’s
strategy must be fueled with real political vigor, lest the
U.S. risks being entangled by Tehran’s shrewd tactics or
being compelled to take drastic measures.
To secure success, Washington needs to be cognizant of a
crucial distinction between Iran’s people and its leaders.
The Iranian people are so opposed to the ruling regime, that
in the past year alone they took to the streets 8,000 times
in various cities around the country to protest against the
clerics and their vicious policies including the decision to
squander the country’s wealth to fund a nuclear program.
Iran’s citizens did this despite hundreds of public hangings
— and even stonings — used by the regime to dissuade an
angry populace from rising up against them.
Obviously, President Obama cannot extend a hand of
friendship to both the oppressed and their oppressors. His
administration should differentiate between Iran’s rulers
and Iran’s people, if it hopes to realize its goal of
genuine change in the U.S. relationship with Iran.
The administration must avoid the vacillating ambivalence so
characteristic of the Bush years and those that preceeded
it. The risky road that was taken by successive
administrations has led the world ever closer to nuclear
proliferation, regional instability and terrorism. Each
administration its best to engage Tehran with various
diplomatic overtures and even with embarrassing political
concessions. Each one failed. As a result the tentacles of
Tehran’s fundamentalism and terrorism dug ever deeper into
Middle Eastern capitals, its centrifuges multiplied
exponentially and its missile range extended even to parts
of Europe.
If the current administration continues down this road,
there is no rational reason to expect it will lead to a new
destination. President Obama has wisely expressed a desire
to chart a new, more promising course with Iran. History can
serve as a valuable guide. Its most unequivocal lesson?
Appeasing this rogue state has not only failed to bring
about a positive change in its behavior it has also
emboldened it to behave more aggressively.
How can the administration establish a link with the Iranian
people? It cannot do so on the streets of Tehran, where
ordinary people cannot speak their minds freely because they
live every day under the dark cloud of suppression. Neither
can it do so in Tehran’s lavish government palaces, because
their occupants hardly qualify as the Iranian people’s true
representatives.
Instead, the administration should acknowledge the
opposition movement seeking democratic change in Iran. The
opposition has an impressive ability to draw large crowds
among Iranians and enjoys substantial support among members
of Congress in the United States as well as thousands of
parliamentarians in Europe.
In an acknowledged “goodwill gesture” to Tehran, the Iranian
opposition was blacklisted in 1997. Although within the past
year, the United Kingdom and European Union delisted the
main opposition, MEK, after successive court rulings
declared the organization is not terrorist, the Bush
administration declined to delist the group, much to the
satisfaction of Iran’s rulers.
A well thought out approach to Iran would have Iran’s
democratic opposition at its heart as a viable conduit to
reach the Iranian people. That would be a breath of fresh
air for a population suffocated by ruthless, unelected
rulers.
By removing all obstacles from the main Iranian opposition
groups, President Obama can send a clear message to the
Iranian people — who have the real potential to bring about
change — that Americans are on their side. Then, and only
then, will the Iranian regime take Washington seriously for
a change.
Alireza Jafarzadeh is a FOX News Channel Foreign Affairs
Analyst and the author of "The
Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear
Crisis" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
Jafarzadeh has revealed Iran's terrorist network in Iraq and
its terror training camps since 2003. He first disclosed the
existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the
Arak heavy water facility in August 2002.
